31 Days of Spanish Books for Kids

I am a lover of books, and I especially love children's books. I use them every time I teach kids Spanish. My collection is pretty extensive {read: "an obsession"}. So I have collected for you a list of some of my favorites. Each day during the month of January come back and read another post about a great book you can use to help kids learn Spanish. I have picked these books based on several criteria {although not all the books have each one of these characteristics}.

A great overall story
Thematic vocabulary
Humor
Examples of Hispanic culture
Teaching concepts {Ideas in the story that you can springboard off of to teach Spanish}

So here is the list and links to each post about the books I have chosen.  {Please note that links won't work until the actual date of posting.}

El Increíble Niño Comelibros
Chumba La Cachumba
Mi Pequeña Enciclopedia

Adivina Qué Está Creciendo Dentro de Este Huevo
Un Alce, Veinte Ratones
Los Animales No Se Visten
El Alce Que Tenía Sed

Este Alce es Mío
El Flamboyán Amarillo
Se Venden Gorras
Oso en Bicicleta
Un Recorrido por la Selva

Atrapados

Yo Tenía un Hipopótamo

Así Me Siento Yo
La Oruga Muy Hambrienta
De la A a  la Z (Country Books in Spanish)
Como Atrapar una Estrella

Mi Primer Atlas

Ruidos en la Casa

Froggy Se Viste

Oso Bajo el Sol

El Loro Tico Tango

La Casa Adormecida

De Vuelta a Casa

Pinta Ratones

Llevé a la Luna a Pasear

Cerdota Grandota

Plumas para Almorzar

María Tenía una Llamita

Arriba y Abajo

Hispanic Culture with Picture Books

I LOVE children's picture books. When my boys were younger it was the way I taught them using books based unit studies from Five in a Row and Homeschool Share. My boys are now teens, and picture books have fallen by the wayside for us. However, I teach Spanish to homeschoolers and public school kids in the afternoon and use a plethora of picture books to teach them. Homeschool Share has a blog, and they are featuring my post on teaching Hispanic culture with picture books. Not only do I share a list of picture books {all in English}, but there are also unit studies {free from Homeschool Share} to go with the books. 

To read the complete post, click here.

Teaching 1-100 in Spanish

{Affiliate links used. Thanks for supporting this blog!}

I have a couple of young students who are working on mastering 1-100 in Spanish. Yesterday I came across these number cards {a free printable from The Measured Mom}. I printed them out and laminated them (I tend to laminate a ton of stuff so that it will hold up under little hands. I use this 

laminator).

The Measured Mom has a list of great ideas on how to use these cards. I will be doing several of these activities in Spanish with my students come January.  I really like "number hunt", "find the missing number" and "race to 100". These are perfect activities to use with young kids to help them review the numbers and yet not deal with the drudgery of repeating them after you over and over again or having to count up to 100 over and over again. I am so glad I found these cards because it will make the learning more enjoyable!

When I teach numbers I also read a couple of books that focus on counting. Here are my favorites:

Huevos y Patas-counting by two's

¡Montones de Mariquitas!-counting by five's

Correle, correle ciempies! -counting by ten's

Here are some other posts on Debbie's Spanish Learning to help you teach numbers.
Mystery Pictures
Teaching Numbers with Children's Books
Color and Number Bingo
Teaching Numbers 1-20

Of Ice Blocks and Penguins {Teaching Prepositions}

{Affiliate links used. Thanks for supporting this blog.}

I have been teaching a Polar Animals Unit to my elementary-age students these past two weeks. One of the concepts we have been working on are prepositions which work well with penguins and ice blocks. I have used these free posters to introduce all the vocabulary dealing with prepositions. While showing my students one of the posters I have them recreate the preposition using a toy penguin and a clear tupperware container as the ice block.  This week we will be doing the exercise on paper.  I created a page with numbered ice blocks and bought a bunch of penguin stickers.  I will use these stickers and pages with my students by describing one of the penguins (what they are wearing) and telling them where to put him in relation to one of the ice blocks on the page.  Here are some examples:

Pon el pingüino que tiene un sombrero rojo y azul cerca del bloque número seis.

Pon el pingüino que tiene los esquís y una bufanda anaranjada encima del bloque número uno.

If you would like to read a story related to penguins along with this activity here are a few...

Perdido y Encontrado - My students loved this book when I read it to them last week! I have to admit it is one of my favorites!

Arriba y Abajo - A penguin that wants to fly!

To see my Polar Animal Unit, click here.